Restaurants pile on extra butter, rich creamy sauces, caramelized sugar toppings, they have double-deluxe, new improved, and whatever they can offer to make their food so enticing, so delicious looking and sounding that we cannot resist. It's been working too because we eat out more and more often. This is fine for an occasional splurge, but if you eat in restaurants every day, or eat fast food more than three times a week you likely have a weight problem.



Extra Value or Extra Fattening?

McDonalds started the trend by offering slightly larger portions for a bit more money, and every other food establishment quickly followed suit. Extra value they called it. Who wouldn't order a bit more for only pennies? Today nearly every restaurant, fast food or sit down dining, serves gigantic quantities that boggle the mind. There is usually enough food served for two or even three meals.

In "Restaurant Confidential" by Michael F. Jacobson (read this and prepare to be alarmed) the calorie count in typical restaurant meals is so staggering it solves the riddle of why obesity is rampant and continuing to rise. Cheese fries with Ranch dressing has over 3,000 calories and 217 grams of fat (91 of them saturated). That's more than the calories a very tall, very physically active man requires, yet we eat it as an "appetizer." Add to that what else you ate that day and you can see how easy it becomes to consume far more calories than you realize.

If you eat out regularly (once a day or more) you're likely consuming closer to 5,000 calories a day; likely double the amount you need to maintain a healthy weight.

Getting the Calories Out: Painless Ways to Reduce Calories at Restaurants

1. Just say NO to super sizing. The size you ordered is already too big. Stop super sizing and you'll save money (see How to Save Money and Lose Weight).

2. Skip the bread and rolls. Many restaurants serve a bread basket no matter what you've ordered. Unless it's fresh baked or something special, skip it. Don't fill up on ordinary bread when you're paying good money for a meal, just push it away, or ask to have it removed. Choose not to put a roll on your plate (you can do it, really, you can). Try it, just once and see if you don't walk out of that restaurant feeling strangely powerful.

If you can't skip the rolls, at least skip the butter. That's right. Eat it plain. Good bread doesn't need butter.

3. Drink More Water and Skip Fancy Drinks. Drinks are a restaurants cash cow. For mere pennies they sell you a squirt of syrup and soda water, then act like they're doing you a big favor by charging only $1.29 for a giant 64 ounce drink. Start saving those pennies and dollars. If you're ordering "To Go," skip the drinks entirely, and if you're eating in, ask for water. If that's too drastic at least switch to diet drinks. "Fat pop" or full calorie soft drinks are not worth the calorie cost. Kids can start losing weight rapidy by making this one switch alone. Ideally stop drinking soda pop entirely, and liquid fruit drinks too for good measure. Eat the fruit and you get the satisfaction of chewing plus the fiber. Think eat, not drink.

5. Trim visible fat and skin. Oh, I know. You love the skin. That's the good part and of course it tastes good, it should, it's pure fat. Do you want to get leaner, or do you want to eat fat? You choose. I never eat chicken skin, and never eat the visible fat hanging off a steak, good taste or no. You decide what you want more: one second's worth of pleasure with a yummy tasty morsel, or a lifetime of carrying around an extra 40 pounds? No one is saying you can't have a bite, now and then, but it's what you do regularly that counts, so if you eat fat, just trim it.

6. Ask for a doggie bag before you start eating. When the food is served, immediately portion off some to take home for tomorrow. Most restaurants serve way too much food. If you think this is gauche then just portion off what you're not going to eat and don't eat it; no one cares. I think it's reasonable to divide restaurant meals and make mini-meals for later, plus it makes it much less expensive.

7. Order one dinner and split it. Just ask for the extra plate. Some restaurants will charge a small fee for this but who cares? Share the meal with a friend and split the cost straight down the middle, or share a meal and add an appetizer, just stop eating that whole huge plateful yourself. Think of the money you'll save and think of the pounds you'll shave.

Try these ideas to reduce the calorie load of restaurant eating and watch the pounds disappear.